YES, we’re being asked to believe rather a lot these days that sounds far-fetched and incredible. But if we can accept that Jacob Rees-Mogg has indeed left government and Matthew Perry once dumped Julia Roberts then why shouldn’t we acknowledge that five young women in Doc Martens, marigolds and petticoats can summon up the spirit of Jane Austen?

Pride and Prejudice (*sort of) has returned to its spiritual home in Glasgow and it’s not simply a play with songs but a piece of a theatrical wonderment.

Not only are audiences treated to a wonderful reimaging of a classic story that clings to the essence of Austen’s creations, but the modern take offers easy and immediate access to an early 19th-century world.

How has writer/performer Isobel McArthur managed this feat – which is altogether loftier than Mrs Bennett’s expectations?

Austen’s classic tale of manners and high-society morals is still very much evident, but the story is presented through the eyes and mouths of young downstairs women (played by Tori Burgess, Hannah Jarrett Scott, Isobel McArthur, Christina Gordon and Leah Jamieson).

The cleverly anachronistic world McArthur has created features a hen night sensibility, where Irn Bru and vodka are drunk at the ball and the music is provided in beat box form and features karaoke classics. Doesn’t Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain and Mr Darcy suggest a perfect fit?

The show also reminds us that there are some emotions that are as “universally acknowledged” now as they were in 1813. “Being a f***ing smart-arse is . . . unladylike,” the inhaler-puffing Mrs Bennet tells her daughter, Elizabeth.

But even more importantly, this is a show about love and romance. Jane Bennet and Mr Bingley’s love is presented in all of its angora-soft feeling.

The play doesn’t ignore the attraction between Elizabeth and Darcy. And of course, we see this awkward desire each time they meet.

What’s also included is an unspoken love featuring Charlotte Lucas as a closet lesbian.

“Relationships haven’t really changed over the past 200 years,” says McArthur.

“Class struggles haven’t changed, gender struggles haven’t changed and that is what is very amusing, as well as relatable,” she says. “I think it’s living in that specific space: it’s relevant because every single character in the novel is recognisable as somebody that we all know.”

Pride and Prejudice (*sort of) was conceived at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow, and such was the success it transferred to London’s West End, just in time to see audiences hammered by Covid.

But you can’t keep a great play down and now it’s back in Glasgow, playing in a top theatre. And don’t think you have to have read Austen to appreciate the play; there’s more than enough character development and fun to be had, to make it all glide along as effortlessly as Rishi slides into Gucci loafers.

Yet how, you are wondering, can a modern take on P&P feature the classic moment whereby Darcy emerges from the pond soaked through, his translucent shirt suggesting hitherto unimaginable sexuality? Well, it does, is all that has to be said.

Pride and Prejudice (*sort of) is at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, November 7-12.

 

Don’t Miss: Leah MacRae Weighs In, The Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, tonight.

RIVER City and Fringe favourite Leah MacRae proved in her stage performance of 51 Shades of Maggie she is entirely unafraid to lay herself bare to an audience. This observational comedy piece will resonate with anyone who’s ever thought of cutting a single calorie.

 

IT’S Halloween time. You deserve a fright, don’t you? And already the scary football results and the Cabinet announcement have begun to wear off.

So, what to do? Enter the world of dark duplicity. And that means unlocking the creaky door into the world of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

What better way to be terrorised than to watch a gothic tale of double lives and inner demons and begin to realise that perhaps, just perhaps, some of those demons exist in every one of us.

Stevenson’s classic is great story of course; concerned by his good friend Dr Henry Jekyll’s recent behaviour, Gabriel Utterson is driven to uncover the identity of the mysterious and dangerous Mr. Hyde, to whom Jekyll is enthralled.

While on this search for the truth, Utterson finds himself seduced by the society of Edinburgh’s rich and powerful, but beneath the glossy façade lies a grim and brutal reality.

Conceived and directed by award-winning film maker Hope Dickson Leach, it is brought to gruesome life by an outstanding ensemble of Scottish screen and stage talent.

The story also offers a fascination allegory, contrasting good and evil with the relationship between the poor and the privileged in Edinburgh.

Filmed live within the century-old walls of historic Leith Theatre the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is available as a digital stream on National Theatre of Scotland’s website until November 7.